Sotol

Sotol comes from Dasylirion, a spiky desert plant that looks agave-like but belongs to a different family. It takes twelve to fifteen years to mature in the wild, and almost every bottle is made from wild-harvested plants.

Producers roast the piñas in earthen or brick ovens, mill them by hand or with a shredder, ferment in open wooden vats and double distil. The result is greener and more mineral than mezcal: pine, wet stone, cucumber and herbs where mezcal leans smoke and cooked sugar.

Terroir matters more than in almost any other spirit. Desert sotol reads dusty and peppery, mountain sotol is floral and bright, and grassland sotol sits between the two.